DavidLong

Pete,

This looks really good. Amazing how sweeping up a few details really makes the scene start to look complete.

Re. attaching the backscene. I had a real fight with photographic backscenes until I partly took the Nevard route. I had the backscene encapsulated with a matt finish by a local firm in Manchester who I found by the inevitable googling. That much came from Mr.Nevard's Catcott blog but I can't remember what he used to attach it. I used display mount, the repositionable stuff; still a bit hairy applying the encapsulation but at least you can move it around a bit until it is where you want it to be. Been on for about eighteen months now with no bubbling or lifting.

David

Tom,

I think that I can safely say that, with your skills, you won't have any problem with finescale. For most in moving from N To 2mm Finescale, the building of track seems to be the major block but you have obviously got past that particular difficulty.

I'll be interested to see how your ideas develop for a layout.

David

Hi Jack,

When I gave you the link I noticed on the Plaza site the Ca-ND-1-Kai which has a 14mm wheelbase. This is correct for my steam Sentinel and so I ordered one. I'm now waiting for it to arrive. My only concern is that it only appears to drive on one axle so the haulage powers may be a bit limited.

David

Like the idea, Pete.

You'll be another one looking for a 21st century Class 33 in N. . .

David

Jack,

Depending on the wheelbase it may be worth looking at these guys:

http://stores.ebay.com/Plaza-Japan/Motorized-Chassis-/_i.html?_fsub=10&_sid=169030440&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

I keep hoping that I'll come across one for a steam sentinel but they are never quite right. I've had a detailed body ready now for more years than I care to think about!

Hi Jeremy,

You'll find the Tiger on Jack's Valve Design shop:

http://www.shapeways...ops/valvedesign

and the PRA on his 3D shop:

http://www.shapeways.com/shops/rail3d

Look good, don't they? I'm starting to be tempted. My copy of John Vaughan's 'Illustrated History of West Country China Clay Trains' is starting to get well thumbed. No, no mustn't do it. . .

David

Thanks for that, Jack. I have your Rail 3D Shop saved in my favourites and I'll contact you about the decals for the ferry van when I get to the ordering.

Regards

David

Hi Jack,

Are the PRAs likely to appear in your Shapeways shop?

I have been looking at the BR Ferry Van and having a search around the net for suitable transfers but haven't come across any yet. Do you know of any suppliers?

Nice modelling.

David

Thanks, Tom, I'll keep Bromsgrove in mind.

By the way, I may have missed it somewhere in your blog but what are the Cobalts attached to in order to move the switch blades?

David

Hi Tom,

Did I see that the DCC fitted Cobalt motors are about £27 each? Did you consider the Traintronics TT300 motors which are a fiver cheaper (and also smaller). Interested in your comments as I'm trying to decide which one to use in a new layout.

Really enjoying your blog by the way, some nice track laying there.

David

Alex,

Excellent, I'll look forward to seeing them on. Hadn't thought about the need to paint the louvres before putting the grilles on !

David

Hi Alex,

Love the reconstruction but I'm not sure that D6723 would have had its radiator frost grilles removed by 1967 although I can't cite a specific photo which would confirm it either way. I did check A1 models and they would sell you a pair of etched grilles for a very reasonable £2.95 !

This makes me a bit cross as I model in 2mm scale and the revamped Bachfarish 37/0, whilst being a huge improvement on the Poole original (i.e. it looks like a 37. . .), has been modelled without the frost grilles. This will be to avoid re-tooling when they produce the model in the later, more varied liveries, when the lack of the grilles would be entirely correct. My crossness originates from the fact that nobody produces an etched frost grille in 2mm scale in order to correct the error. I love 37s as well, especially green ones but they are not getting my money for one that I can't correct. Grrrr. . .

David

Keep at it, Andy, that Jinty chassis of Bob's is excellent. Look forward to the next post.

My 04 rebuild, version 3.0 (!) is on the back burner while I paint, weather and letter some more stock for us to play with at Darlington.

David

Thanks for the kind comments, Andy. Glad you enjoyed the day. First outing for a layout is always a bit scary.

David

Hi Rich,

Just checked on the LNWR Society website and it sounds like you got it just about right for the body colour as they say:

"It is sufficient here to say that all ordinary wagons were painted a dark grey colour, derived from equal measures of white and black paint. All iron work below the solebar, including buffer heads and couplings were painted black when they left the workshop but were quickly weathered once in service."

By the way, the article that I had from BRJ was on painting LNWR locomotives so wasn't an awful lot of use.

Nice to see someone doing pre-grouping - a very neglected area in my opinion.

David

Hi Rich,

Nice thought about the flitch plates but I think if you look at wagons with steel underframes prior to 1948 you will still find that the solebars are painted the same as the body colour. This seems to have carried over from when underframes were largely made of wood.

I notice that Phoenix Precision have a P382 LNWR Wagon Grey available - it all depends on whether to you intend to build more North Western wagons as to whether you invest the £2 in a tin !

I think that I have an article about pre-grouping painting pracices at Crewe - I'll see if I can find it.

David

Rich,

The normal practice pre-nationalisation was to paint the solebars and headstocks the same colour as the body. Everything below the solebars was black. This only changed in B.R. days when it became normal to paint the solebars and headstocks black. As for the body colour this looks a shade dark on the second photo (a bit of a Great Western shade, dare I say) but on the first photo looks about right ! Paints were hand mixed in those days so probably no two wagons were ever the same and certainly wouldn't stay pristine very long being towed around by some very smoky engines.

Nice bit of work though.